Donald Trump poised to spend £100m on TV campaign

Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House is planning for what it says will amount to $140 million (£100m) worth of advertising from now until US election day.

The total includes $100m in television airtime and $40m in digital ads, according to senior communications adviser Jason Miller.

The plan represents a new approach for the billionaire businessman, who has bragged about how much less he’s spent than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and who has seemed to rely heavily on media coverage of his rallies.

In the past week, the Trump campaign has put only about $22m into TV and radio ads, according to Kantar Media’s political advertising tracker. Clinton has spent more than five times as much – $124m.

Trump’s new ad buy will include 13 states, from key battlegrounds such as Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to new targets of Maine, New Mexico and Wisconsin, Miller said. About $40m of the ads will play on national TV, he said.

That averages to about $16.7m a week in TV ads; Miller said the first $15m ad buy was made on Friday, although media buyers and services such as Kantar Media didn’t immediately see evidence of that.

Clinton’s ad reservations going forward total about $11m per week, but her campaign can add to those.

Trump’s advertising plan costs more than his campaign has in the bank, meaning he needs to dip into his own pockets or continue raising a lot of money.

Trump has continued to achieve strong fundraising online this month, campaign aides said.